So, for those of you who were dying to know what this little treasure is, here is the big reveal...
A baby sea turtle egg!
Now, I wish the picture above was my own. Wow, that would have been SO cool. But I snagged the image above from the web. The egg picture above, however, is mine. Where we stay, it is sea turtle haven! Unfortunately, it is not nesting time- which is from May-October. During that time, it is not uncommon to run across a mama sea turtle nesting or her babies scurrying out to the sea after hatching.
What we ran across, up above, is the remnant of a little sea turtle that hatched. The shell is now dried and hardened and almost resembles a sea shell, if it weren't totally round like a ball (which might be hard to tell from the picture)
As I was saying the other day, my Mom being here has been a bit of a good luck charm. We ran across the sting ray, the baby shark, the sea turtle egg. And then... and THEN... would you believe we ran across THIS!??!
It is not a dolphin, though I realize it resembles one. It is actually a whale called a Beaked Whale. She was 15 ft. long and 2,000 lbs. Beaked whales are deep water whales living 50+ miles off shore rarely seen by humans. So, for this beautiful gal to find herself beached was quite an extraordinary event. So extraordinary that it ended up on every major news channel in FL. And so extraordinary that Orlando news interviewed me since I'm such an expert on Beaked Whales and all.
Okay, I'm not really an expert. I didn't even know there was such a species as "Beaked Whales" until this amazing event occurred. But I happened to be a bystander with my family and I suppose having my cute little baby boy in my front carrier pack sealed the deal for the interview. ;)
The whale came to shore alive around 3 PM on Tuesday. Believe it or not, this occurred about 100 ft. out our back patio door. Our neighbor and his buddies tried to push her back out to the ocean (which I later learned is the worst thing you can do... so, note to all of you readers who may run across a beached whale- remember- don't push her back!) Anyway, they did get her back, but she beached again and was alive on the beach struggling for about 45 minutes until she finally perished. The scrapes you see all over her are actually from the breakers slamming her back down to the bottom when she was close to shore. That's actually why marine specialists tell you not to try to push the whale back because it actually adds to their suffering when they get slammed around and beach the second time... once is bad enough... twice, even worse for the poor creatures.
Early the next morning a team of Marine Biologist came and performed a necropsy on the whale right there on the beach to determine what caused her to come so close to shore and die. The kids and I walked back a few hours into the necropsy, but didn't stay long because it was quite gruesome. They actually buried the whale right there in the sand on the beach.
This was a once in a lifetime experience. Not one I am soon to (or ever!) forget. I feel so privileged that I was able to see and touch such a spectacular animal up close, though of course I wish it had not been due to the poor little ladies demise.
It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad my kids were able to experience it as well.
